Yandex NV, Russia’s biggest Internet search engine, fell for a third day, leading a slump in the nation’s New York-traded shares, on concern lawmakers are preparing to ban access to some websites. RTS futures dropped. The Duma is scheduled to vote as soon as today on amending a law that bans access to websites that promote criminal activity against children such as pornography and illegal drugs.

Russia's Communications Ministry believes that the new web censorship bill needs amendments, the Communications Minister Nikolay Nikoforov stated on July 11. The Ministry wants the public to discuss the bill and put forward amendments by the autumn parliamentary session.

After weeks of protest in Sudan's streets, the government is further cracking down on dissent, censoring news sites and silencing journalists and bloggers reporting on the situation. More background on the movement can also be found in this ONI blogpost.

All around the world the copyright lobby is pushing for increased censorship of ‘pirate’ websites, The Pirate Bay in particular. Thus far this has resulted in court-ordered blockades in several countries including the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium. However, BitTorrent traffic is not decreasing and the blockades may actually be counterproductive.

Days after WikiLeaks began releasing a trove of more than 2 million e-mails stolen from Syrian officials, ministries and companies, members of an Anonymous group have claimed responsibility for the hacks and document dump to Wikileaks.

Earlier today, the Russian language section of Wikipedia shut down its service and posted in the place of its main portal a public announcement condemning a draft law now under review by the Russian parliament. Law 89417-6, “On the Protection of Children From Information Harmful to Their Health and Development,” entered the Duma in early June with endorsements from members of all four of the represented political parties, but has since generated rising controversy.

Technology and information penetration in China will eventually force the Great Firewall of China to crumble and even lead to the political opening of the Chinese system, according to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was found guilty and sentenced to three months in jail on Monday on charges linked to anti-government comments he made on social media. He has already been arrested and released twice since early May.

Protests in Kuwait by the stateless Bedoon people escalated this past Friday. While traditional news sources have not provided full coverage of the event, live Twitter updates are keeping the world informed.

About 80 masked protesters, calling themselves allies of the global hacker group Anonymous, picked up litter in Tokyo this past Saturday in a novel demonstration against new copyright laws that could mean jail for anyone illegally downloading copyrighted music and movies.